26 Comments - wordslinger - Friday, Apr 8, 16 @ 10:46 am: –Seeing what Rauner did with the school budget last year, Democrats may try to use any school budget appropriation this year to try to gain some kind of leverage against the Republican governor’s agenda.– Don’t. It’s wrong when Rauner does it now, it will be wrong if the Dems do it in the future. - Justin Observer - Friday, Apr 8, 16 @ 10:54 am: Wordslinger: “Don’t. It’s wrong when Rauner does it now, it will be wrong if the Dems do it in the future.” Yes. This. Thanks! - Almost the Weekend - Friday, Apr 8, 16 @ 10:58 am: And they say sports betting should be illegal. If sports gambling was legalized school funding wouldn’t be an issue. - illlinifan - Friday, Apr 8, 16 @ 11:07 am: RNUG words from yesterday about holding school budget as leverage may be prophetic - Oswego Willy - Friday, Apr 8, 16 @ 11:09 am: The Cullerton Mistake isn’t the fact that leverage is trying to be used, that’s wrong in of itself, but what makes the Cullerton Mistake so damaging is losing the high ground and being a hostage taker “now” and being no different than Rauner. The levels of wrong in that Cullerton Mistake will be the measuring move that might level Rauner as Cullerton dunk lower. Now, the Rehab of the Mistake, more Press on that Cullerton Press Shop. You’ve got your work cut out for you… - Anon221 - Friday, Apr 8, 16 @ 11:22 am: One, entire budget bill with all funding line items. That is what is needed. It will be vetoed, and then it will fall to the House Republicans (and a few House Democrats) to show where their loyalties lie. The Senate Republicans can “skip” out on a yellow or red vote. But, the House Republicans are going to have to make a decision if it’s money and their own “careers”, or the lives and well-being of their constituents. - South of Sherman - Friday, Apr 8, 16 @ 11:22 am: But how else does this end? Until it starts impacting large numbers of everyday Joes, so they can’t send their kid to school or get their drivers license renewed, we are going to remain stuck in neutral for the foreseeable future. I don’t want to see schools fail to open this fall, but giving Rauner a K-12 budget won’t do anything to resolve the overall budget disaster. - Anon221 - Friday, Apr 8, 16 @ 11:37 am: South of Sherman- “Until it starts impacting large numbers of everyday Joes, so they can’t send their kid to school or get their drivers license renewed, we are going to remain stuck in neutral for the foreseeable future.” ***** Very true, and there are still too many people out there who are willfully NOT wanting to know what’s going on in the State government. They still Rauner’s “shakin’” as a very good thing. They are skeptical or totally dismissive of the idea that K-12 schools might not open this fall, or may have to close early. This, even while they see their friends and family members and neighbors being impacted- losing jobs, losing daycare, losing and losing. They haven’t felt the pain, and don’t seem to think they ever will. Until it hits home on one or more levels, the pain is not theirs, and the “shakin’” is just not an abuse. - No Use For A Name - Friday, Apr 8, 16 @ 11:55 am: ‘Until it starts impacting large numbers of everyday Joes, so they can’t send their kid to school or get their drivers license renewed, we are going to remain stuck in neutral for the foreseeable future.’ Which is why Madigan’s strategy depends so heavily on a shutdown, and Rauner’s strategy depends so heavily on avoiding a shutdown. Passing K-12 funding removes a pressure point that Democrats could use as impasse leverage. Not passing K-12 funding creates many unhappy parents blaming Democrats for holding up school funding. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Apr 8, 16 @ 12:03 pm: ===Which is why Madigan’s strategy depends so heavily on a shutdown, and Rauner’s strategy depends so heavily on avoiding a shutdown.=== LOL… Please understand… It was Madigan who passed K-12 funding, it was Rauner who required the Raunerite Caucuses to NOT be “Green”, then Rauner realized he’d own schools not being open, so he signed K-12 funding with nary a Raunerite “Green” That’s willfully ignorant. If Madigan wanted schools closed, why pass an Approp for Rauner to sign? You think on that… ===Passing K-12 funding removes a pressure point that Democrats could use as impasse leverage. Not passing K-12 funding creates many unhappy parents blaming Democrats for holding up school funding.=== This is the Cullerton Mistake for K-12, but are you a wee bit curious why Rauner is so adamant that K-12 passes? Because…. governors own. Cullerton holding the hostage is wrong on way too many levels, but, just like that sit-in at the Mansion, frustration goes to a governor, same as it ever was. - wordslinger - Friday, Apr 8, 16 @ 12:04 pm: Whatever you call Rauner’s tactics — “leverage,” “hostages,” “extortion” — they’re unprecedented and illegitimate. It’s outrageous to inflict this damage on social services, higher ed and Illinois businesses in order to advance a political agenda. He’s the governor of Illinois, not Tony Soprano. You can’t give in to those tactics, or you’ll just get more of the same. But you also can’t employ those same tactics, because then you’re just as bad as them. - Ratso Rizzo - Friday, Apr 8, 16 @ 12:09 pm: I think the K-12 funding should be tied into higher Ed funding, combined in a bill, passed by the GA, and went to the gub’nor for signing. He’ll sign it or he’ll own it. Simple as that. - Ratso Rizzo - Friday, Apr 8, 16 @ 12:11 pm: *sent…not went - Diogenes in DuPage - Friday, Apr 8, 16 @ 12:13 pm: I had breakfast with a school superintendent this morning, and this topic arose. This superintendent and others are planning how they might operate this fall if an education budget is not passed. My friend fears it is a likelihood in excess of 50%. JS Mill, are you hearing the same from your peers? - DHSJim - Friday, Apr 8, 16 @ 1:17 pm: Both sides need to realize that no one is winning and everyone - especially the hostages of the impasse- are losing. - 47th Ward - Friday, Apr 8, 16 @ 1:17 pm: Um, nobody is winning in Illinois. We are all losing. The only question for the pols is, who is losing the least? You can’t intentionally tank your state’s economy and neglect its most vulnerable people and then claim you’re “winning.” That mindset is a big part of the problem. - No Use For A Name - Friday, Apr 8, 16 @ 1:41 pm: The most laughable thing is the blind rush by some to be argumentative. When did a government ’shutdown’ become limited to K-12 schools? - No Use For A Name - Friday, Apr 8, 16 @ 1:51 pm: Particularly when the initial quote referenced the point that everyday Joes won’t care about the shutdown until it whims affecting them in ways like sending their kids to school or renewing their driver’s licenses. Ranting about Madigan and last year’s K-12 appropriations is irrelevant. Please, keep up. ‘Until it starts impacting large numbers of everyday Joes, so they can’t send their kid to school or get their drivers license renewed, we are going to remain stuck in neutral for the foreseeable future.’ - Mama - Friday, Apr 8, 16 @ 1:51 pm: - Anon221 - Friday, Apr 8, 16 @ 11:37 am. You are 100% right. I will also add that people think they are being informed by watching televised canned news. They think they are much to busy to dig deeper. -or- They think whatever the government does won’t affect them because they are not employed by the state. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Apr 8, 16 @ 1:52 pm: ===When did a government ’shutdown’ become limited to K-12 schools?=== It’s not limited, Rauner demands a clean K-12 Approp, Cullerton, through his Mistake, is in a mode to hold the funding and Rehab it with actual monies for the governor to prove. It’s a battleground, carved out specifically by two actors in this struggle. Is this too difficult for you to follow, or… - Mama - Friday, Apr 8, 16 @ 1:52 pm: Rich, please tell both sides NO ONE IS WINNING! - Oswego Willy - Friday, Apr 8, 16 @ 2:06 pm: ===Passing K-12 funding removes a pressure point that Democrats could use as impasse leverage. Not passing K-12 funding creates many unhappy parents blaming Democrats for holding up school funding.=== Hmm… ===Ranting about Madigan and last year’s K-12 appropriations is irrelevant. Please, keep up.=== You were the first to bring up the K-12 funding in comments. Check it out. I can’t help you don’t understand institutional knowledge. That’s on you. Knowing why helps in knowing why we’re here. Hopefully next time you can tell yourself not to bring it up, lol - wordslinger - Friday, Apr 8, 16 @ 2:19 pm: FWIW, the Tribbies have a wild race-card edit today regarding an old police shooting in Rockford that apparently has something-something to do with Rauner’s efforts to restrict collective bargaining at the local level. Below are links to the edit, and a R-R Star story that is chock-fulla-facts that the edit curiously chooses to omit. Plenty more facts on the google that the Tribbies deemed unworthy, too. But if you believe the edit, apparently the Illinois State Police and other independent investigators, who ruled the shooting justified, and the Winnebago County State’s attorney and a grand jury who declined to prosecute, and a Winnebago county judge who declined to overrule an arbitrator’s decision, are all in the tank for unions so white cops can murder black people. That’s the fault of of black and suburban Dems, but Gov. Rauner’s union-busting agenda will change that. Dishonest and demented. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-rauner-madigan-cullerton-unions-turnaround-edit-0410-jm-20160408-story.html http://www.rrstar.com/article/20131116/NEWS/131119481 - Grandson of Man - Friday, Apr 8, 16 @ 3:17 pm: **You can’t intentionally tank your state’s economy and neglect its most vulnerable people and then claim you’re “winning.”** You can’t fit the very square peg of union-busting and hostage taking into the very round hole of the Democratic led ILGA and run a “squeeze the beast” play behind that. That creates bad politics. - Anon221 - Friday, Apr 8, 16 @ 3:38 pm: Mama- I agree. Most news is no more than a few tweets in length sometimes. If you don’t dig, you don’t learn all sides. Just think how much better informed everyone would be if channels like C-SPAN and Bluestream were national over the air channels, and didn’t require Internet or cable/dish connections. - Hedley Lamarr - Friday, Apr 8, 16 @ 3:55 pm: Wordslinger - The Trib is playing the race card? I’m shocked! Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.